Meet the billionaire running against Keisha Lance Bottoms in race for Georgia governor
Here’s what Black voters in Georgia should know about Keisha Lance Bottoms’s billionaire opponent, Rick Jackson.
The race for Georgia governor is officially underway after last week’s Republican primary runoff, and the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Keisha Lance Bottoms, is wasting no time putting her Republican opponent on the defensive.
If elected in November, Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, would make history as Georgia’s first Black woman governor and the first in the nation. Days after billionaire Rick Jackson secured the Republican nomination, the 56-year-old Georgia politician went on the offensive.
In a social media post, Bottoms called out Jackson as “nothing more than a Trump-obsessed billionaire who made his money off the backs of hardworking Georgians.” She added, “As the reckless policies coming from this White House are hurting our state, he doesn’t disagree with a single one of them.”
Polling shows the momentum is with Bottoms, a first in a generation for a Democrat in Georgia. But in a state that has been run by Republicans for decades, the race for governor won’t come easy for the former Biden White House official and one-term mayor.
However, as Republicans suffer from the deep unpopularity of President Donald Trump and his party’s policies amid an affordability crisis, and in a state that has 3.6 million Black residents, Bottoms has a legitimate chance to do something that has never been done in the Peach State.
Here’s what Black voters in Georgia should know about Keisha Lance Bottoms’s billionaire opponent, Rick Jackson.
Jackson has poured millions of his own dollars into the race
Rick Jackson is a 72-year-old billionaire with no political experience who made his fortune as a health care staffing executive and has a net worth of at least $1 billion. Jackson’s personal wealth was a major focus in his primary contest against Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who slammed Jackson for pouring more than $100 million of his own money into the election.
Jackson’s wealth is sure to continue to drive his campaign for governor in the general election against Keisha Lance Bottoms, who has already seized on it as a sign that he is out of touch with Georgia voters. On the night of Jackson’s primary runoff victory, Bottoms called him out for his company, Jackson Healthcare, securing a more than $1 billion no-bid contract in Georgia during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amid the scrutiny, Jackson’s campaign said the health care company will not bid on any new contracts with the state of Georgia and will “work to responsibly unwind any existing contracts.”
Critics of Jackson say his wealth essentially bought his way through the primary, particularly the amount he spent on campaign ads across the state. It remains to be seen just how effective it will be in the general election against Bottoms. However, Bottoms will likely weaponize Jackson’s wealth to argue he, like billionaire President Trump, is out of touch with everyday Georgians and what they need from the next governor.
He brags he’s just like Trump but with a ‘southern tongue’
Rick Jackson is certainly not trying to distance himself from Trump, despite the U.S. president’s record-low job approval ratings, particularly on the economy.
During the primary campaign, Jackson repeatedly compared himself to the president, telling Georgia voters that he would “be like Trump, but with a southern tongue.”
“I’m going to be Trump’s favorite governor. I guarantee you,” said Jackson, who donated $1 million to Trump’s campaign for president.
Despite not endorsing Jackson in the primary, President Trump praised the Republican nominee for Georgia governor following Jackson’s victory over Burt Jones.
“Congratulations to Rick Jackson, who very successfully campaigned on being “TRUMP,” and won,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on June 17. In a follow-up post, the president said, “Rick Jackson ran a great TRUMP Campaign. Very smart!”
Rick Jackson has also bragged about making money from Trump’s unpopular tariffs that drove up inflation and consumer costs, as well as the president’s signature “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which cuts trillions in taxes for wealthy Americans and corporations while making historic cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, which millions of Georgians rely on to survive. Jackson also opposes expanding Medicaid, indicating he would keep Georgia among the 10 states that have refused to do so.
When asked on the campaign trail, Jackson said he couldn’t think of anything that he disagrees with Trump on, which is surely to be seized upon by the Bottoms campaign.
An election denier who supports gerrymandering of Black districts
Unlike the current Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Rick Jackson falsely denies that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.
Trump infamously tried to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election, calling then Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and demanding that the Republican official “find” the necessary votes to reverse his loss in the Peach state that was largely driven by Black voter turnout across the state.
Despite a federal lawsuit that upheld Trump’s loss in the presidential election against Joe Biden, Rick Jackson was adamant that the election was stolen from Trump and that it was “ridiculous” that it wasn’t overturned.
Amid Republicans redrawing maps to eliminate majority-Black congressional districts across the South as a result of the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais ruling, Jackson also supports gerrymandering in Georgia to dilute the political power of Black Georgians in a state where all of the current Democratic members of Congress are Black.
“In light of today’s Supreme Court ruling, redrawing the maps must be added to the agenda. Democrats nationally are trying to redistrict their way back to power, and what happened in Virginia is just the tip of the spear,” said Jackson. “There is no time to waste. Georgia must act now to ensure secure elections in Georgia and counter the Democrats’ national assault on our elections.”
Supports Georgia’s abortion ban, says women should have to prove rape
Rick Jackson says he supports Georgia’s near-total abortion ban at six weeks, with exceptions for rape or incest. However, he has suggested he supports further restrictions.
During a leaked conversation with a voter, Jackson suggested that women in Georgia should have to prove they were raped in order to access abortion care.
As HuffPost reported, when the voter said she wanted to see “babies born no matter how they were conceived,” referring to rape, Jackson said: “You still got life, it’s still a life.” He also agreed with her when she said a woman who says she was raped “needs to prove it” to be eligible for an exception under the state law.
A spokesperson for Rick Jackson’s campaign tried to dispute reports over his leaked conversation, saying in a statement, “Rick supports the current Heartbeat law as it stands and is not looking for changes to it. Rick is proudly pro-life and supports our current law, and his statement echoes that.”
Georgia’s abortion ban has remained controversial, resulting in the high-profile childbirth deaths of two Black women, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller.